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Fall in love with Connecticut’s barns: History, agriculture, workmanship

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Fall in love with Connecticut’s barns: History, agriculture, workmanship


Venturing out in the rural Connecticut landscape, there are reminders of the agricultural age that dominated the landscape. Farms that once used their land for raising livestock and growing crops have either been abandoned or slashed in size to accommodate new homes. Sometimes all that remains of the original farm property is the farmhouse and a barn or two.

Those barns remain interesting to me architecturally, because of the quality of materials and workmanship that went into building them, and in a nostalgic way, because I grew up in dairy country in New York state. I used to play in barns, and I wish I had had more of an interest in the structure of the barns when I was so close to them, inside and out.

Mapleleaf Dairy Farm Pamm Cooper, UConn Home & Garden Education Center. Pamm Cooper photo

One of the more familiar barns in Connecticut are the post and beam structures. Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry features one built in the 1760’s. This barn is on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut, and it is built in the English/ New England hybrid style that normally had a gable roof and vertical sheathing. The historic Jacobson barn on the UConn campus also has a post and beam structure.

The English barn is a simple building with a rectangular plan, a pitched roof, and a door or doors located on one or both, of the long sides of the building. English barns featured three distinct bays, the center one being for the threshing of grain, and the side bays used for livestock and hay storage. Footings and foundations were typically made of stone, an abundant resource in Connecticut landscapes, and the stones normally had no mortar. Doors on English barns were hinged and swung open.

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New England barns are usually a type of bank barn, built into the side of a hill giving ground level access to one side, but a ramp or rarely a bridge were used to access the doors. Roof and eave overhangs were typically one foot to protect walls from rainwater. Ventilators and cupolas were added to some barns in the 19th century to reduce moisture build-up. Some barns had stairs, but most featured ladder access to the second floor. New England style barns normally had a gable roof and vertical sheathing.

A picturesque red barn with white trim and a cupola is located on Main Street, South Windsor, and it is an example of an English/ New England hybrid style barn. The New England style barn, built after 1830, could stand alone or be connected to other farm buildings and often had an off-centered end wall entrance for wagons.

The Morse Farm barn in Scotland is listed on the National Register, the State Historic Resource Inventory, and the State Register. This carriage house style barn has one and one half stories and features a gambrel roof design. A gambrel roof has two distinctive two slopes on each side, with the upper slope pitched at a shallow angle and the lower slope at a steeper angle. This allowed for more headroom when working on the upper floor. This barn had a combined use as a stable and carriage storage.

On Valley Falls Road in Vernon, the historic red barn, built between 1875 and 1920 features a gambrel bank style and with a cupola and a timber frame structure. A milking stable was in the basement, featuring the typical cement floor and manure gutters and whitewashed walls. It is listed in the Local Historic District and the State Register.

Gilbert Road in Stafford features an English Bank style of barn. Not too far away, on 425 Old Springfield Road in Stafford there is the Greystone Farm English style barn that features exterior siding of gray fieldstone, and flush board and vertical siding on other sections. The roof is a gable type.

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The Sheridan Farmstead (c. 1760) on Hebron Road in Bolton is listed on the State Register of Historic Places and features a gentleman’s barn built in 1900. A gentleman’s barn had a dual purpose as a weekend retreat and a working farm. The white extended English bank barn features a stairway to the upper level, hay chutes, a brick chimney, rolling doors, an earthen ramp and horse stalls on the ground level.

There are many more barns, both old ones and newer ones, that are still interesting and useful. To those familiar with the past, barns offer a glimpse into the past, and maybe the present, as well. Tobacco barns, for example, although dwindling in number, are still very much a part of Connecticut’s past and present.

To locate barns on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places, visit the website on this link- https://connecticutbarns.org/state-register. For your gardening questions, feel free to contact, toll-free, at the UConn Home & Garden Education Center at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at www.homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu or contact your local Cooperative Extension center.

Pamm Cooper, UConn Home & Garden Education Center



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Decomposed body found in Connecticut after standoff with man who opened fire at police

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Decomposed body found in Connecticut after standoff with man who opened fire at police


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A decomposed body and several explosives were discovered inside a home following an hours-long standoff with a man who had barricaded himself in the residence and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement in Connecticut, according to authorities.

Stamford Police responded to the Oaklawn Avenue home on Tuesday morning after a state marshal called 911 while attempting to carry out a court order to evict the man. 

The man, later identified as 63-year-old Jed Parkington, opened fire at officers several times during the day, damaging police cars and prompting officers to return fire.

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No officers were hurt in the exchange of gunfire.

LINGERING QUESTIONS AFTER ARSON RULED OUT IN DEVASTATING FIRE AT JUDGE’S WATERFRONT MANSION

Law enforcement officers respond near a home where a man shot at officers and a decomposed body was later found in Stamford, Connecticut, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

The man was found dead later in the day from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.

Officers were clearing the home after the standoff found a decomposed body on the second floor, Police Chief Timothy Shaw said in a statement. Explosives such as pipe bombs, grenades and Molotov cocktails were also located in the home.

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“This was an extremely dangerous incident that tragically resulted in the loss of two lives,” Shaw said.

MASSACHUSETTS MAN ACCUSED OF BEATING PARENTS AND SETTING HOME ON FIRE, LEAVING THEM TO DIE

Officers respond near a home where a man opened fire at officers and a decomposed body was later found in Stamford, Connecticut, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

The police chief also lauded the efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement officers and firefighters, including hostage negotiators who attempted to talk to the man for several hours.

The Stamford Police bomb squad responded to the home to safely remove the explosives before detectives could begin investigating the remainder of the residence.

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Authorities said the identity and cause of death of the decomposed person was still under investigation.

Stamford Police car (Stamford Police)

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The state inspector general’s office is investigating the officers’ use of deadly force during the standoff.

A bank had foreclosed on the home and demanded the residents vacate the property in April since the mortgage was not being paid, court records show. A judge ordered the eviction last month after offering the chance for the residents to make mortgage payments.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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West Haven officer arrested, accused of using excessive force

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West Haven officer arrested, accused of using excessive force


A West Haven police officer is on administrative leave and is facing charges after an incident during an arrest in July.

The incident involved Officer Richard Naccarato, and was reported to the police chief by another officer who was at the scene.

“Officers on scene reported to their superiors that the arresting officer may have used out-of-policy force,” Chief Joseph Perno said on Wednesday.

A panel was convened at the West Haven Police Department to review body camera footage from the incident.

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The chief placed Naccarato on administrative leave on July 4 pending an internal affairs investigation. He also reported the incident to court officials, who asked state police to investigate.

According to an arrest affidavit for Naccarato, he was one of two officers who responded to JR’s Bar & Grill on Campbell Avenue around 11 p.m. on July 1 for the report of an unwanted person at that location.

When the officers arrived, they found a man sitting on the sidewalk in front of the bar eating food. A bouncer at the bar asked the man to move, but he refused.

When the officers asked the man to move, he told them he wasn’t breaking any laws and he wasn’t going to move.

When Officer Naccarato asked the man to put his hands behind his back as he was attempting to arrest him, the man jumped up and punched Naccarato on the left side of his face, according to the affidavit.

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Naccarato and the other officer then took the man to the ground and attempted to handcuff him, but the man resisted.

According to the affidavit, Naccarato can be seen on video punching the man in the head a total of 18 times. At one point, the second officer yelled “no, no, no,” in an effort to intervene.

The man was eventually subdued and arrested.

During the state police investigation, Naccarato told investigators the man was trying to gouge his eye. Photos of Naccarato after the incident show injuries near his eye, according to the warrant.

After completing their investigation, state police determined there was probable cause to charge Naccarato with second-degree assault. He was arrested on Oct. 24.

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Chief Perno said paperwork has been sent to the the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council recommending that Naccarato be decertified as an officer. Naccarato has been with the department since June 2021.



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Opinion: CT needs a climate superfund, and it needs one now

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Opinion: CT needs a climate superfund, and it needs one now


The principle behind the Climate Superfund is simple: we must make fossil fuel companies pay for the climate damage they have created, rather than leaving those costs to our neighbors and families.

Without a Climate Superfund, Connecticut will continue to build financial burdens from climate change, including disaster relief, infrastructure repairs, and public health costs that will disproportionately impact low-income and vulnerable communities. 

Critics of the Climate Superfund often raise the concern: won’t the fee to fossil fuel companies simply be passed along to residents in the form of higher energy bills? That’s an important question to address, and one that several economists have already answered. 

As Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explained in a letter to New York’s governor, the Climate Superfund fee is based on companies’ past pollution, not their current production. That means it’s considered a fixed cost, which is something oil companies can’t simply pass on to consumers without risking their profits. In other words, this policy makes polluters pay their fair share for the damage they’ve already done without raising gas prices for the rest of us.

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Additionally, the global prices of crude oil is set through supply and demand in a global market. Even large fossil fuel companies cannot raise pump prices in Connecticut without losing market competitiveness or incentivizing consumers to change behavior. 

In New York, the Climate Superfund bill will raise $3 billion annually over 25 years without increasing energy costs to residents. When similar settlements have occurred, including the federal Superfund law for toxic waste, there was no evidence of increased costs for customers.

The Climate Superfund will advance clean, affordable energy in Connecticut. Many households, especially in low-income communities, already spend a disproportionately large share of their income on utilities. A superfund can increase the state’s capacity for financial aid, such as utility assistance to alleviate energy poverty. Additionally, if funds from the climate superfund are directed towards retrofits, weatherization, and clean heating technology in low-income communities, this could help lower long-term energy costs and reduce energy burdens.

The Climate Superfund should be designed to provide stronger governance in how funds should be spent including prioritized funding for environmental justice neighborhoods and community engagement in project selection. This helps advance “energy democracy,” where communities have a voice in how funds are spent and can shape their local energy systems.



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